• Dylan, Raconteurs, Roots Top New Fest
• Metallica Play Benefit; James Hetfield Q&A
• Eagles Album-by-Album Guide
• Secrets Behind the Surprise NIN Album
• On the Tour Bus With Tegan & Sara
• Archuleta and Cook to Face Off on Idol
• On Tour: T.I., STP
• Video: Death Cab for Cutie Tour Rehearsal
• News Ticker: Fatboy Slim, Madonna
• “Thriller” Added to Congressional Registry
• News Ticker: Dolly Parton, Lollapalooza

Top stories from the last three days:

• Ticket Prices Could Hurt Concert Business
• Jason Castro Talks Stress of “Idol”
• Breaking Artist: Cut Copy
• Charts: Neil Diamond Hits Number One
• Video: Tokio Hotel Talk Fans, Makeup
• Video Premiere: Manu Chao’s “Politik Kills”
• Video: Rock Pioneer Wanda Jackson
• Foo Fighters Promise “Catering Jihad” on Rider
• Moldy Peaches Rework Song for Atlantis Ad
• Madonna Planning School in Malawi
• The New Issue: The Eagles
• Ozzy, Metallica Top One Day Ozzfest
• Video: Jason Mraz Interview & Performance
• New Music Report: Death Cab for Cutie
• Video: Duffy Reveals Secrets of “Rockferry”
• Hear Scarlett Johansson Album & Read Review
• “True Norwegian Black Metal” Preview
• New Mötley Crüe, Weezer Release Dates
• In the Studio: Beck
• Photos: The Cure Open Tour in Virginia
• Bennington Talks New Band, Linkin Park
• Summer Movie Preview ‘08

Scroll down for full news stories, commentary and much more in Rock Daily.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Price Caspian leads the way in this week’s Peter Travers video review. Click below for the Rolling Stone film critic’s take on the kid-friendly fantasy epic and how it stacks up against other epics.

• Peter Travers Video Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

• Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2.5 stars)

Watch every episode of our weekly Peter Travers video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click “Launch application”). Every Friday, a new episode will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don’t have iTunes, download it here.]

[Video: Jennifer Hsu]

T.I. plots his first concerts since his release from house arrest, the reunited Stone Temple Pilots schedule a bunch more dates to their already-stocked summer tour and Hot Chip already make autumn plans. The full list of tour dates is after the jump.
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In their thirty-plus year career, the Eagles have had hit singles, massive albums and the biggest-selling record of all time. Click below for an album-by-album look at the band’s complete canon, from their self-titled debut to their big 2007 comeback Long Road Out of Eden.

• Album Guide: The Eagles

“We wanted to get out of the computer world and get back on tape,” Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard tells Jenny Eliscu in the current issue of Rolling Stone of his band’s just-released Narrow Stairs. “I just rediscovered my guitar.” Gibbard and Co. (with guitars) let director Lance Bangs shoot some footage of their tour rehearsals, and Rock Daily has an exclusive: video of the band playing “Your New Twin Sized Bed” in their Seattle studio.

Every week, Hype Monitor takes a look at a handful of acts making the biggest noise amidst the chaos on the blogs. Click below for the facts on Swedish delights Radio Dept., Cleveland duo Mr. Gnome and Broken Social Scene memeber Brendan Canning, and be sure to check out the rest of the new music over at the Breaking blog.

• Hype Monitor: Radio Dept., Mr. Gnome and Brendan Canning

• Contrary to reports, Fatboy Slim will not retire his moniker and instead keep the name “Fatboy Slim.” The DJ’s new album The PBA will be released later this year.
• Love Story, a documentary about Arthur Lee and his band Love, will hit DVD on July 29th. The doc will feature exclusive interviews Lee, who died in 2006.
• Madonna will have to wait a little longer before finding out whether the Malawian boy she adopted can officially join her family, as the ruling in the case has been pushed back to next week.
• The nominees for this year’s BET Awards include T-Pain, Kanye West and Keyshia Cole. The ceremony takes place June 24th in Los Angeles.

Metallica got extra loud in their first live set in a year on Wednesday, headlining a benefit concert in Los Angeles for Flea’s music school for kids, the Silverlake Conservatory. That meant no ballads and no new songs from the band’s upcoming Rick Rubin-produced album. Instead, for nearly two hours at the Wiltern Theater, Metallica erupted with big sludgy riffs and epic speed metal going all the way back to the early Eighties.

“Now that’s a beautiful sound right there,” singer James Hetfield told the crowd, responding to the cheers from 2,000 fans who had paid $300 (or $500 for VIP seats) for a rare chance to see the band in a smaller venue. “It’s great to be playing live again.”

• Click here for more photos from Metallica’s benefit performance in Los Angeles

New songs from the upcoming album would just have to wait until the fall. Meanwhile, there were no special effects, but just four guys rocking out onstage, from the intense riffs and beats of “Fuel” to the heavy gloom of “Sad But True.” (more…)

Tegan and Sara had already begun packing up the bus they’ve been calling home while touring behind The Con, when Rolling Stone arrived for a tour Monday night, but Tegan Quin assured us it would have looked the same fully stocked. “Other bands come on our bus and are like, this is not a bus,” she laughs, pointing out the labeled drawers for everything from “fruit” to “shoes,” and the no-shoe rule on the tidy vehicle. Just hours before the twins’ final gig on their current trek (after a brief break they’ll appear at Bonnaroo and on Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors tour) Tegan showed us everything from fan-made pinatas to the band’s current obsession, a This American Life DVD. Click here for the full tour and live shots from the group’s show at New York’s Terminal 5.

• Tour Bus Tour: Tegan and Sara

[Photo: Jason Bergman for RS.com]

Last night’s American Idol featured genuinely touching hometown visits for the final three remaining contestants, a Ryan Seacrest slip-up (he attributed “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” to Chaka Khan rather than Roberta Flack) and the long-expected dismissal of Syesha Mercado, meaning next week’s finale will be a David-off between Archuleta and Cook. (Did anyone notice Archuleta’s montage was soundtracked with My Morning Jacket’s “One Big Holiday”?) But onetime Idol Fantasia Barrino stole the show with a high-voltage performance that left Simon Cowell blinking with disbelief. Click above to watch her flame-haired, neck-grooving “Bore Me.”

More Idol on RS:
• Jason Castro: “It’s Nice to Be Doing Something Different
• All American Idol Recaps and Updates
• Photo Gallery: David Archuleta’s Oustretched Hand

Last week, Trent Reznor snuck up on everybody when he unleashed the new Nine Inch Nails album The Slip on the Internet for free. Click below to find out how Reznor pulled it off, the technology behind it and what other artists might be indulging in this model in the future.

• Nine Inch Nails Surprises Fans With Free Online Album

• Album Review: Nine Inch Nails’ The Slip

[Photo: O’Reagan/Retna]

Michael Jackson’s 1982 classic Thriller was among this year’s class of twenty-five recordings added by the Library of Congress to the National Recording Registry. Not that we needed Congress to tell us how important Thriller is, but the distinction means that Thriller is “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” to the history of American music. Other recordings making the Congressional cut was Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman,” Joni Mitchell’s For the Roses, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ “Tracks of My Tears” and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters. Audio recordings of speeches by Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan were also included in the eclectic mix. Every year, the Library of Congress adds twenty-five recordings to the Registry, compiled by the preservation board and suggestions from the public.

• Dolly Parton is “outraged” that jock Howard Stern manipulated her voice to make it seem like the singer said racist and vulgar remarks. “They have done some sort of trickery to make this horrible thing,” Parton said. You can listen to the Stern segment here.
• Iron & Wine, DeVotchKa, Saul Williams and the reunited Toadies have all been added to the Lollapalooza bill.
• Check out the very-NSFW new track from Raekwon, “Necro,” featuring Ghostface Killah. The song is the first from the much anticipated Only Built 4 Cuban Linx sequel.
• Based on first day sales, Death Cab For Cutie’s Narrow Stairs is on course to top the Billboard Top 200 next week. Check out Rolling Stone’s New Music Report on the album here.

Add another multi-day music event to your summer schedule, as Bob Dylan, the Raconteurs, the Roots, Gnarls Barkley and Spoon will headline the inaugural New American Music Festival on August 8 & 9 at SouthSide Works in Pittsburgh, PA. The festival is sponsored by American Eagle Outfitters and curated by Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Rounding out the lineup will be fifteen bands from various colleges across the country who will compete in a competition, with the winner receiving recording time in a Los Angeles studio. Tickets go on sale Friday and cost a mere $25 for students. Follow the jump for the full lineup. (more…)

This week’s RollingStone.com Breaking Artist is Melbourne, Australia’s Cut Copy, an indie electropop trio who have parlayed their synthy dance pop bliss into a successful tour with Daft Punk and the excellent new album In Ghost Colours. Click below for more on Cut Copy, including video of a live performance of their single “Hearts on Fire.”

• Breaking Artist: Cut Copy